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Cottage Style Home Office Makeover Update

Before we get to the renovation plans, let’s talk food shopping for a minute. I’ve always been sort of “allergic” to the grocery store, what with all the walking around and freezing and such, but I’ll tell you what, I’ve never enjoyed grocery shopping more than I do these days. Have you started ordering your groceries online yet? I’m a big fan. Just log in, select and pay for your items, and then choose the time you want them to be ready. It’s wild! You don’t even have to get out of your car if you don’t want to. ‘Course, we always do because it makes the load-up process go quicker, but what a neat service. The gal at Walmart that usually brings ours out says most people haven’t really caught on to the idea yet, but I bet you anything it’s just a matter of time.

Now let’s talk about this home office area. You may remember this previously plastic-covered wall that separates my in-laws barn from our part of the house:

We added some clear pine, tongue-and-groove planks a while back and then pushed our old Billy Bookcases into place:

They came with us from our previous home and I’m so glad we’re going to be able to put them to good use here too. They’re still a work in progress, but here’s where we’re at with the project today:

Over the next few weeks, it’ll start to look a lot different and I’ll share updates along the way. We’re going to clad most of it in Stikwood (thin pieces of white-painted, adhesive-backed reclaimed wood) and I got some cute, little numbered plaques to mount to the top of each of the taller doors.

Aren’t those fun? I found them on Etsy. I also ordered these as back-up options.

We’ll have to make a trip to Atlanta to pick up four more of the little glass doors for those two extension shelves up at the top of the bookcases on the left and right. I’d order them online, but Ikea wants $350 to ship them- yikes!

Last but not least, we’ll give the unit an even more finished, custom look by adding a “header” to the top of it with more reclaimed wood and crown molding.

That wall needs another coat or two of Simply White paint too. And do you want to know a secret? That board at the top, the one right under the crown molding? It’s not really a board. It’s just a strip of the existing drywall. We didn’t want to remove the crown molding so Brian just scored it and installed the pine planks on the rest of the wall space below it. Shhhhh!

Off to eat some watermelon. Let’s hope the gal at Walmart picked me a good one!

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Comments

Your brilliance once again shines!!! Stikwood on ikea!!! I can’t wait to see those! I have 3 inexpensive dressers I’ve been playing with ideas as to how to switch their look!!! And scoring drywall to look like a plank, what a great tip so you don’t have to move that crown. Project sounds lovely can’t wait to see the transformation!

Hi Layla, I love everything you’re doing to make this house reflect your style. It’s just beautiful!

Can you provide some more information about how you extended your floor vent under the cabinets? We’re about to transition our daughter to a big girl bed and the only place it can go is right above the only vent in her room. Something like this might work!

I thought I was the only one. I hate grocery shopping. I use Harris Teeter online shopping. The $5 charge is so worth it! We still go to the grocery store occasionally when you just need milk or a few small items, but it reduces my anxiety greatly when the “big” trips consist of pulling up to the store, telling them my name and watching them wheel the groceries out to me.

Your room is coming along nicely. I like the versatility of the billy bookcase. I’ve seen such lovely “built-in” conversions of them and can’t wait to see your results.

No online grocery shopping for me. Well let me rephrase that. I do buy paper products, cleaning products, etc. online from JET.COM. As for food, I cannot imagine letting someone choose my produce and most especially meat! We don’t use alot of packaged items, the majority of our weekly haul is fresh, and I want to pick what we get. I don’t exactly love grocery shopping either, but I guess I’m choosy when it comes to what we eat. I do buy a good bit of our produce at a local market, so that is easier. Our grocery store has a butcher and I’m able to have meat cut if I choose. And also, I don’t shop at Walmart. LOL But hey, whatever works for you!!

Layla–can you do a post about options for using a bead board like products to cover popcorn ceilings? Pretty sure you will have great ideas about products and techniques. I think this would be a super helpful post for those millions of us with nasty popcorn ceilings. Thanks so much!! (Fellow Minnesotan, here!)

You should try Shipt. They will shop for you and deliver to your home. You can shop at Publix, Winn Dixie and Target here in Montgomery. I’ts a great service (and my daughter works at HQ in B’ham 🙂 so I’m not biased.)

That looks so good! It’s great that you could re-use the bookcases again. I love when these things work out. What is up with Ikea charging so much to ship? I wanted to order gift cards once for my daughter, and yes, they wanted to charge $350 for two $50 gift cards!!!! Insanity! At least now we have one, although it’s an hour away, but that’s better than nothing. And grocery shopping – I haven’t done it for 30 years or more. My husband does it – his punishment for messing up my coupon organization one too many times! LOL! I do pop in from time to time to get things he doesn’t buy ( you know, those things we hide from everybody, only for us!) but I’m outta there as fast as I can zoom! I panic in there with the muzak and noise! Makes my mind go blank!

I live for Walmart grocery pick up. I’ve realized that the scanning of the shelves for items exhausts me. I even use emeals for meal planning and that app exports a shopping list to my Walmart grocery app and I never even set foot in the store. Technology is amazing sometimes!

I totally need one more euro sham from Ikea and can’t bring myself to go back to Atlanta for it. I live like three streets away. Maybe you can be my own personal Ikea delivery when you go get your extra pieces?!

That looks so good! I love your vision for the space. Speaking of grocery shopping, you might see if [email protected] is in your area. They deliver to your house in as little as an hour! I’ve been working for them 2 months ago and love how they treat both the customer and their personal shoppers. Delivery is free on orders over $35!

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I enjoy writing and taking pictures, and adding pages to this place whenever inspiration strikes.